The Crescendo (20 page)

They all fell quiet, no doubt Cody's words resonating. They all now had to lie to their parents and whoever else along the way. That was their sacrifice and they made it willingly to do a job that they felt was important.

‘For the greater good,' said Anna.

Jaz finished her cake first, she was hungry from the exam, and brought up the party.

‘Party? I'm in,' said Cody before any plans were given.

‘Good, we were hoping you and Tay could bring the drinks. I'll bring the food,' said Anna. ‘We'll have it at Pax's, bit like what we did for Jaz's birthday.'

‘Sounds cool. I'm in. We can go grab the booze in my car if ya want,' Cody said to Tay.

‘And I'll leave you my awesome playlist on my iPod and I'll be back around midnight just as the party's winding down,' she said with a pout.

‘Na, it'll just be hitting its stride by then.' Cody wiggled his eyebrows. ‘I'll be still kicking and I'll save you a dance.'

Jaz was about to protest but decided against it. Why pop Cody's bubble. ‘Sure. I'd like that.' She needed her friends. If she couldn't dance with Ryan, then dancing with Cody would be the next-best thing. She'd have to make sure he didn't cop a feel, but if he did she'd have an excuse to drop him to the floor. And she had so much fun dropping Cody.

They all split off as they left Molly's. The boys for the booze and the girls went to the shop to grab food supplies and some decorations to make it feel like a celebration. Then it was time for Jaz to change and get to the pub for her job.

‘See you when you get back. I hope you see Ryan again,' said Anna as she loaded the dip and cheeses into the fridge.

Jaz was so nervous all night, eagerly watching the door, waiting for Ryan to show up. She was disappointed when he didn't show. Not even Bud and his mates came back. Maybe two big nights in a row was a bit much. But Craig and Bert were and they kept her entertained with stories from their youth. Bert used to play polo cross and Craig was a rodeo rider.

‘He wishes, he was the rodeo clown, you know the ones that dress up funny and distract the animal,' said Bert.

‘I did that once, Bert. Once. Only to help out a mate, the rest of the times I was riding broncos,' said Craig with a look that showed his mind was reliving the good old days.

Jaz learnt that these two met through their love of horses.

‘You okay, Jeni? You seem a bit flat?' asked Ted at one point.

‘Just tired,' she said, forcing a smile as she headed back into the kitchen to help them with some dishes.

The night seemed to drag on for ages, probably because she kept watching the clock and the front door. But eventually it was time to go home, and hopefully the party was still going because Jaz needed something to cheer her up. It was probably optimistic to think that Ryan would be back the next night, but hope did funny things.

Jaz parked in the small garage at the back of Pax's house. In the car park at the back of the gym she saw Taylor and Cody's cars, plus Bags. Party must still be going.

Unlocking the back door, Jaz headed inside the house to dump her stuff. From here she could hear music still blaring away in the gym. It sounded like a club, dance music, probably Nero if Jaz was correct. She couldn't be bother changing out of her t-shirt and black leggings, instead she left her backpack by her bedroom door and headed to the source of the music.

What she saw inside the gym made her smile. Empty bottles of beer were piled on a table, like a trophy, next to empty chip packets, half-eaten dip, biscuit crumbs and cold party pies and sausage rolls. Her iPod was plugged into speakers and sat on the floor by the power point, but it was her friends that had caused the smile. The only light came from the office and change rooms, giving the gym mood lighting. They were all in the boxing ring, using it as a dance floor. Anna was dancing with Bags, who practically held her in his arms, her feet on top of his as they tried to waltz to the dance song. Then there was Cody and Tay, dancing with each other but bouncing off the ropes as they did twirls and then back again as they tried to copy Bags and Anna. Jaz stepped closer and started clapping. It was the funniest thing she'd seen in ages and totally what she needed.

‘Jazzy, come join us,' said Cody, pulling the ropes apart so she could climb in.

‘Good party?' she asked.

‘The best,' said Anna. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes bright.

They all joined her in the middle and they started jumping up and down to the beat of the song. Bags picked her up and did his rag-doll dance with her. He was such a big strong man, you couldn't be anything but a rag doll in his arms. Bags swung her about before putting her down at the end of the song.

‘Shit, you young ones have worn me out. I thought I could make it but I'm beat. Think I'll have to follow Nile's lead and head home,' said Bags, wiping the line of sweat from his forehead.

‘Aw, do you have to, I just got here?' said Jaz, making a sad face.

Bags cupped her head and kissed her forehead. ‘I must love you and leave you, my little one. But I'll see you tomorrow, if my head feels up to it,' he added.

Bags then hugged the girls and high-fived the guys before getting down from the boxing ring and getting his stuff.

‘Bye, Bags,' they yelled as he left out the back door.

‘Five Hours' by Deorro came on and Anna started jumping up and down and dragged Tay over to her to dance.

As the beat picked up, Jaz closed her eyes and let the music take her away to another world. She didn't need any alcohol, she'd probably inhaled enough at work. Sometimes she found music to be a better release.

Arms came around her and she leant back into the body holding her, recognising Cody's salty fresh scent. They swayed together and Jaz took comfort in the contact, wishing it could be Ryan. Dreaming it was.

As the song changed to Adam Lambert's ‘Ghost Town', Jaz opened her eyes and saw Anna and Tay dancing together closely. Anna had her head resting against Tay's chest and they were moving slowly. Tay leant down and kissed Anna's head. They were in their own world.

Jaz grabbed Cody's hand and tugged him towards the ropes. Before he could speak she put her finger up to her lips to silence him. Like a well-trained puppy, he followed her down from the boxing ring and over to the office. Poor Cody probably thought she was leading him somewhere for a kiss.

When they were inside, she let go of his hand and walked to the two-way mirror.

‘Jaz?' he said, coming to stand beside her, his body pressed up against hers.

‘Shhh,' she whispered. ‘Just wait.'

Sure enough, when Jaz looked back, Anna and Tay, arms still around each other, were kissing.

‘Aw, it's about time,' she said softly. Jaz wanted to clap her hands together in excitement but held back.

‘Tay getting some action,' said Cody proudly. ‘Nice.' Cody put his hand around Jaz and pulled her up against him. ‘What do you say, shall we do the same?'

Jaz smiled, her mood was too good to be ruined. ‘Ah Cody, you never give up, do you?'

‘Every one you don't ask for could be one you miss,' he said with a wiggle of his eyebrows. ‘Look, I know you're taken,' he said with a wink. ‘But I'm here if you need to scratch an itch?'

‘Actually, you can,' said Jaz. She almost laughed at the shocked expression on his face. ‘I could use a hug from a friend.'

Cody chuckled. ‘Yeah, I can do that.'

He pulled her in tightly and Jaz held him just as hard. Sometimes a hug was all you needed, that connection, feeling someone's heart beat against your own, that reassurance you weren't alone. She rested her head on his shoulder and they stood like that for a long time. And it was nice.

Chapter 20

Jaz was back at the bar a week later, after a very slow long week of no school to pass the day so she spent it sparring with the boys, shooting at the range, and they visited the paintball nearly every second day for battles. The guys who ran the paintball place, who they were now on first name terms with, mentioned another paintball place north of the city, if they wanted to try another venue, plus some outside ones in the bush.

Cody came up with a brilliant idea of buying their own paintball guns so then they could go to a block of land and hunt each other and set up targets to hit. Of course it turned out that Anna and Jaz would have to buy, thanks to Pax's money, a bit of land, something still uncleared to use as their training area.

‘Plus it could be a place to bury a body if we need,' said Tay.

They'd all stared at him, opened-mouthed.

‘I'm kidding. Gee whiz,' he'd said with a belly laugh.

‘I think it's a brilliant idea. Our parents will think we are using the money to buy investment property,' said Anna. ‘But we'll have a place to go to shoot whenever, even at night.'

‘Oh, we could get night-vision goggles,' said Cody.

‘I wonder who will pay for that,' Anna had mumbled.

Jaz had been a little disappointed that Tay and Anna seemed to have gone back to normal after their big snog fest at the party. She didn't want to pry in case they were keeping it a secret from her while it was still new. But it was hard when she just wanted to see her friends happy. If they took too long, she'd decided she was going to talk to Anna and see what was going on. Maybe they'd blamed the alcohol for it happening and gone their separate ways? Who knew. It was a little irritating not knowing but Jaz was trying to keep her nose out of it.

Having work to go to was a blessing. It was a good distraction and she was dying to see Ryan again.

As it turned out he didn't turn up on Thursday night, but the boys were there on Friday night and twenty minutes after Bud turned up, so did Ryan. Jaz didn't think she could ever get sick of seeing him. Their eyes met briefly but so much passed between them. It was hardly a passing glance but they made every millisecond count.

‘Hey, great to have you boys back,' said Jaz. She knew Stevo got a kick out of being included with the ‘boys' even though he was the oldest. Jaz was really taking a shine to Stevo, which always came as a shock when she caught sight of the tattoo on his wrist. It reminded her that no matter how nice someone was, they could always hide a secret. Jaz did, but it wasn't a bad one like Stevo's. She wondered what he did for the Shesha Serpents. Was it just keeping an eye out or, being the gardener, did he bury bodies? For all she knew, Stevo could be the one that kills unwanted people snooping around Jamison. Probably took to them with his gardening pruners. She shuddered and found it hard to believe. Surely she was a good judge of character? She got Ryan right. Her gut told her that Stevo had a soft heart.

Hopefully he didn't prove her wrong.

‘We come just to see you, Jeni,' said Bud with a smile.

Now Bud, she was uncertain about. He could have a crazy killer hidden inside. Like a switch, or a Jekyll/Hyde kind of thing.

‘Awe, shucks Bud, you'll make me blush,' she said. ‘So who's for a cold bevvy?'

She got to glance at Ryan when he said yes to a beer. It wasn't much but another vision for her memory bank that she'd cherish, along with all the others.

It wasn't until Ryan came to pay for the third round that she got to speak to him alone. Well, without his workmates around; there were still other guys at the bar but they hopefully weren't paying attention.

‘Hey, Jeni, can I get another round?' said Ryan.

He smelt so sexy Jaz was having a hard time stopping herself from leaning over the bar to take a deep breath of him. ‘Sure can, Reece.'

He held out his money between his fingers and as Jaz went to take it she noticed the small white slip of paper with it, tilted away from any prying eyes.

‘Thanks,' she said, taking it carefully. As she dropped her hand down to walk to the till, while hidden behind the bar, she slipped the note into her pocket.

Then she had to ring up the change and sort out the beer the whole time the note was burning a super hole in her pocket like a hot coal.

‘Here ya go.' With a last glance at Ryan, she turned and served a few more people down the end of the bar before Ted came back and she ducked off for a toilet break.

She just about wet her pants with excitement as she sat down on the toilet in her private cubicle to open the note.

24-16-5, 66-33-12, 11-25-6, 102-53-7, 98-54-8, 41-17-22, 70-26-18

Damn, she should have guessed it'd be in code. What if he was searched at work? Maybe they were searched all the time. It was good that Ryan was playing safe, only now Jaz had to wait until she could get home. Then she had to find the magazine he'd given her ages ago that they communicated through. In a way it was nice to know he still carried the same magazine around with him, like their own personal phone that only they knew the pin number to.

The rest of the night seemed to drag on, the note an even bigger distraction in her pocket. At least she still got to sneak glances at Ryan, but she was too busy with a big crowd to spend any time with the guys who kept to their group of three, Wilkins not making an appearance.

Bud made a point of finding her before he left, she was at the bar trying to catch up on washing glasses and getting them stacked into the fridge.

‘We are off now, Jeni. Just wanted to say goodbye.' Bud held his hand up and gave a little wave, which was weird on his stocky form.

‘Aw, how nice. Bye Bud. Sorry I was too busy to get a game of pool in with you.'

‘That's alright, maybe we'll try come on a Thursday when it's quieter?'

‘Yeah, that would be great.'

‘Sweet. See ya.'

Jaz waved and kept it going when she saw Stevo and Ryan looking her way. She tried not to let the longing and desire for Ryan end up in her eyes for all to see.

Half an hour later, Ted stood in front of her while she had the broom in her hands. ‘You're like a cut bloody snake,' he said shaking his head. ‘You really wanna get home, hey?'